


One Foot At A Time

by ScarletSoul



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Attacks, Feeling Weak, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pain, Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 16:47:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16021955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarletSoul/pseuds/ScarletSoul
Summary: What was supposed to be an easy mission.  Quickly became Galra ships flashing lights then falling.And falling.And Falling.until Lance saw nothing but darkness.





	One Foot At A Time

**Author's Note:**

> This was great to write. I wrote this for https://langstronevent2k18.tumblr.com/
> 
> and my giftee was https://deaththecat.tumblr.com

Lance leaned over the the the bench that was in the locker room. He had one foot on the bench and placed the last piece of armor on, before the mission he was about to embark on. He looked over to see the Red Paladin also finishing up. He got lost in thought for a moment, watching Keith’s brows furrow slightly in deep concentration. Lance felt star struck. This wasn’t the first time he found the other man attractive. He knew he was attracted to all genders, but he found himself getting lost in Keith’s form more often. Which also frightened him deeply, each time it happened. So what did he do when he got frightened and uncomfortable? He got loud… and obnoxious.

He shook his head to banish the fog that was looming over him and threatening to overwhelm his thoughts. He sent a lazy gaze around the room and when he looked over to see Allura standing there, he whined a little,“ Are you sure we can’t just take the lions? Like we could have this awesome landing! Show up looking all cool and make the people go crazy! And rockets would go off! Pew pew!” he started to wave his arms around to demonstrate.

“As much fun as it would be for people to be running away screaming from you, no. These people are not used to dealing with advanced technology and we need to establish an alliance with them. The shuttle is smaller, safer, and less conspicuous. Besides, it will be good for you and Keith to learn how to be more diplomatic, as well as get along better.” Allura smiled, speaking in her smooth, honeyed voice as she walked over to Lance. Suddenly, she grabbed his chest plate and pulled it in place roughly with a smirk.

Lance just huffed and looked away, as a pout crossed his face. When he heard Keith chuckle in the background. Lance just glared at him.“Not a word from you!” He knew it wasn’t a very effective one because of the be big soft spot he had started to develop.

Keith just laughed harder, while looking away and attempting to wipe the tears away from his eyes. “Man, you whine too much.”

“Why are you finding this so funny?” Lance demanded, waving his Bayard around and feeling a blush start to settle in his cheeks.

“You are being so ridiculous,” Keith said, keeping his face turned away and trying to hold back from laughing at him more. It made a tad bit of pride well inside Lance to see Keith laugh so much.

“Okay, you two, into the shuttle you go,” Allura said making the laughter fade away as she shooed them into the shuttle. “You need to talk to the aliens on the planet. They use to be great friends with the Alteans many years ago. So please make peace with them.” she gave them one last push away.

Lance was being dramatic. Giving Hunk a big kiss on the cheek, hugging it out with the others. He could almost hear a scoff from Keith in the back somewhere. He waved to everyone one last time as the two finished their goodbyes. He wasn’t normally that bad, but he had a bad feeling. He pushed it away, deciding it was just because of nerves. Lance rushed over to the shuttle yelling. “I call driver!” as he jumped into the pilot’s seat and started preparations to leave.

Keith slowly walked in and scoffed as he sat down in the passenger seat. “Fine, just this time. I don’t want to waste time arguing with you. Let’s get it over with.”

Lance whooped with joy as he finished preparing to leave.“ Testing, testing. This is your captain speaking. Scarlet Witch and I are we ready for take off. Do you copy?” He asked forcing as much suave as he could into his voice.

“Lance stop it with the dumb code names…”

“Oh! Thanks for answering us, Green Goblin! I hear you loud and clear” Lance said before Pidge could finish complaining, only hearing a soft “god Lance” from her. He happily finished up the launch sequence. ”Are we ready?”

“Ugh yeah, I’m ready for you two to get your asses -”

“Language” Shiro reprimanded in the background.

“Mood killer… yes. The hatch is opening. Safe trip you two. Don’t get into too much trouble.” She added as she typed away, doing last minute check-ups.

When the doors finally opened Lance let out another cry of joy and bolted out of the hanger eliciting a shriek from the passenger seat.

Lance just laughed harder. He smoothed the ship out setting a nice speed to the Planet Yakemir.

“You are still the worst pilot ever,” Keith said, managing to give him a lopsided grin, as he finally caught his breath from the mild panic Lance’s exuberant launch put him in..

Lance glanced over and took a deep breath. ‘Okay, I can do this… it’s just a compliment.’ He gave a winning smile. “Yeah? I guess I still could never beat your freaky overpowered skills.”

‘Nailed it!’

He didn’t realize Keith was staring at him like Lance might have lost his mind.

Once they reached the plant’s atmosphere, Lance was lost in thought when. The shuttle suddenly jolted forward. Suddenly, he realized what he was looking at. “Shit!” Lance shouted, yanking the controls to the side so the next blast heading their way missed. He wove around the flurry of blasts, doing his best to get away from the surprise Galra attack.

“Guys it was a trap!” Lance heard Keith yelling into the com.

They were everywhere. Lance saw them coming over the horizon, hidden by the oddly looking thick trees. 10, 20, no, he was pretty sure there were at least 40 regular cruisers. Not counting the battle class ships he knew had to be there. He shifted to the left using a purple tree as cover. Lucky for them they were in a small shuttle and the trees were big enough to easily hide them in the branches. “Keith I need you to start shooting, please… anytime now.” He said as the Galra found them again. He had to swivel the ship sharply around, just narrowly avoiding a direct hit.

Keith stared at him as if he grew a second head. “My aim isn’t as good as yours, are you sure?” He didn’t sound quite panicked yet, but it didn’t seem like it would take much more before the panic set in.

“You know normal… ugh shit… normally would appreciate your compliment, but… okay, not that way then! But I don’t think I can let go of the controls right now… Shit, shit, shit. Please just start shooting I don’t care if you can’t hit anything. Just shoot.” He said as he pulled the shuttle under another large branch. Lance then felt it as the ship shuddered, the tail end of a blast grazing the back of the ship.

“Oh okay, Yeah we got I this,” Keith said as he started shooting. Lance knew it wasn’t enough, they needed backup.

Static

“Gu…. we ar… just hol…”

Lance could hear the voices coming in from the coms, but he wasn’t quite sure who it was. Allura? Shiro? Pidge… it really could be anyone. The sound was so distorted. Lance could feel the stress weighing on him.

Another shot. Another hit. He wasn’t sure how long the shuttle could last like this. ”Keith, we need to… Okay then shit… We need a plan-” the shuttle gave a large shudder as the entire dashboard flashed red.

The shuttle lurched forward, then started it’s rapid descent towards the ground. Keith was focused on frantically shooting the oncoming ships, that he almost didn’t notice they pulled back. With that, Lance knew they were out of time. He unbuckled and jumped forward, wrapping his body around Keith, to protect him.

He only saw a flash of Keith’s shocked face as they came crashing down. Then searing pain clouded his vision. He blacked out holding Keith, to shield him the best way he could.

Lights started fading in and out. Sounds, like a low angelic hum, sounded in Lance’s ears. Everything was so bright. He just wanted to sleep again. As his eyes started to close again his face was yanked over a little and the strange voice got louder.

“ance … up…” The sound started to resolve itself as a voice. ‘Now who did that voice belong to again? And why does everything hurt?’

He opened his eyes, but everything was just a mesh of color. “S’want to sleep.” He slurred trying again to close his eyes. Everything both hurt and felt strange.

His body was shaken again, causing a cry to fall from his lips.” No… nce you… wake… come…” wait he knew that voice… who was it again? Black hair, red jacket, pale skin…

“Keith?” He asked but it didn’t come out any louder than a whisper.

“it’s… Lance, you’re… awake…” Keith’s voice was finally starting to make sense. As his consciousness started to return completely, his vision began to clear. Then the pain engulfed him, and he let out a pained whine.

“I know. I know…. You thinking? Why did you…why did you protect me?” Lance tilted his head to see… wait was Keith crying? Why was he crying?

“Cause… s’you’re important… to me…cant’s let the best… fighter get’s hurt.” his words slurred through everything, but he had to make sure he got his point across.

“Moron! You shouldn’t worry about others all the time! Now your hurt and… bleeding.” Keith took a deep breath. “Okay. I need you to tell me what hurts. I’ve wrapped most of your wounds. Can you stand up? We need to hide.”

“How long s’was out?” he was slurring, and Keith was frowning at him.

“Like 30 minutes. Now, can you get up so we can hide, until the team can get to us?” Keith said a little more forcefully, he sounded worried.

Lance just nodded. “Yeah m’sorry… let’s go…” When he started to try to get up, he found a problem. His arms started to shake as he stared at his legs.

“What’s wrong? C-come on Lance. We need to get a move on.” Keith asked deeper worry seeping into his voice.

Lance took a trembling breath, as panic began to rise. He had never felt more awake and clear headed, than at that moment. “Keith… my legs… they aren’t moving… K-Keith… I can’t feel my legs. Why aren’t they moving!” He was heading for a complete descent into panic. He tried to reach up, to grab his legs, only to find it hard to sit up as well. Panic was starting to cloud his vision and mind. He started to reach around violently to try to find a way to get his body to move.

Something grabbed him and pulled him in close. For a moment everything was calm and warm. Time started to slowly wind down to normal speed. As he breathing started to reach a normal pace, he could now hear Keith’s voice repeating apologies. 

“M’sorry, I’m okay now… just light headed… Wasn’t expecting all… of this to happen… S-Sorry for freaking out.” Lance tried his best to pull himself together. He couldn’t be freaking out like that when they were still on a mission! What was wrong with him? He looked up at Keith to see him giving a sad smile.

“it’s okay. We will figure this out. Right now we need to hide somewhere until the team can get to us,” he said while Lance did his best to follow. With his lightheadedness and panic, he found it difficult to actually do anything that required any sort of focus.

Lance wasn’t sure if Keith had continued to talk, but suddenly he got up and walked away. Lance had half a mind to ask him where the hell he was going and what he was doing. As fast as he was gone, he was back again. This time he was dragging a large scrap of metal and some of their provisions from the shuttle.

“I’m going to put you on this and pull you. It will be easier than carrying you. That way we can both fight if need be.” Lance didn’t even get time to think about what Keith had said. The next thing he knew, he was being lifted up and placed on the metal plate, causing Lance to let out a squawk in protest.

Lance watched in awe as Keith gently wrapped his legs, in what looked to be large pieces of fabric, to keep them from moving around. Silently, he wrapped any cuts that were left on the rest of Lance’s body. Lance felt a little useless, knowing he couldn’t do anything to help. All he was good for was sitting and watching.

When Keith was done, he looked at Lance with a deep frown and furrowed brows. “You’re awake enough to watch my back, right?”

Lance just stared at him, lost for a moment. His brain was still in shambles. He finally realized what Keith had said and given a quick nod. “Yeah, of course, I got it. Who do you think you’re talking to?” Lance tried to give him a winning smile, but he was pretty sure it came out as a grimace.

Keith just sighed as he tied more fabric to the end of the metal, and started to pull Lance along. The movement began to lull Lance into a dazed. As he started to feel his eyes droop, the metal sled jerked, causing Lance to jolt awake.

“Don’t fall asleep!” he heard Keith hiss through gritted teeth. Lance strained his neck to look up only to find that Keith was gazing at him as well. “You hear me?”

Lance just nodded dumbly, “ m'sorry,”

“Don’t be sorry, just stay awake.” He seemed to think something over, then glanced back at Lance, giving him a small smile. “Why don’t you, uh, tell me about your family?” Keith finished.

Lance knew Keith was trying to get him to stay awake. It warmed his heart to think Keith actually wanted to know things about him. “Well, what ya want a know, mullet?” Lance tried to make his voice light, with its normal bubbliness. He was pretty sure it was closer to slurred and heavy.

"Well… Tell me what you wanted to be. Before you wanted to go to the Garrison?” He huffed as he pulled them up the dark forest hill.

“Um, well, I guess I wanna be was a singer. Wanted to travel the world. Singing and seeing people. Discovered it was too much money. Hardly no money to be made in it this day and age. Mi Familia needed the money. I needed to help them any way I could,” he said in a sad tone. He heard Keith trying to be reassuring and make him feel better.

So that’s how it had started. Keith would ask things, occasionally jolting the metal sled to keep Lance awake. Lance did his best to answer all the questions that Keith was throwing at him.

Finally, they made it to a safe place and Keith pulled the sled to a stop. Lance had gone quiet again and found himself staring into space. His brain didn’t have any coherent thoughts. His lips didn’t want to move anymore. Trying to express what he was thinking was daunting.

“Hey, Lance. You need to eat something.” Keith said, handing over what looked like to be, a kind of protein bar. Lance just stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out what had been said. Everything was just so unfocused. Hazy and sharp and bright and soft at the same time. When Keith pushed the bar in Lance’s face, he realized what he was supposed to do. as he grumbled and started to nibble on it.

Keith was getting worried. He had just dragged a semi-coherent Lance several miles to a hidden cave where they could wait on the rest of the team.

Keith learned a lot about Lance, well from what he could decipher. Some of what Lance had said slipped into Spanish, which Keith knew next to none of. He had picked up some by living in Texas and from Lance, but not enough to understand everything that had been saying.

The two of them were curled up inside the small cave. Keith noticed Lance shivering where he sat, and Keith ended up scooting a little closer to try to keep Lance warm. That earned him a strange took, to which he just shrugged back.

Lance’s wounds looked bad. Yeah, Keith knew he was cut up in some places, probably had a cracked rib or two, maybe a minor concussion, but it was nothing like what Lance suffered.

He had large, deep gashes all over his arms and upper back He was bleeding from a cut on the back of his head that was probably bad enough that it had probably caused a concussion. Keith had cleaned and bandaged everything before he had woke up.

Then there was the major problem of Lance not being able to feel his legs. He didn’t seem to have any movement or feeling in them. They just laid there motionless, like they weren’t even attached to his body.

Keith didn’t know what he was going to do. He took a deep breath, glancing over at Lance. Keith noticed he started to doze off again, not even finishing the food bar. He rushed over, shaking him lightly. Lance just barely looked up, eyes glassy. “You need to stay awake,” he gave the hurt boy a stern look.

Lance nodded slowly letting out a long pained sigh. Keeping the head injury in mind, Keith searched for something to help keep Lance awake. He knew how badly Lance wanted to sleep, but it was far too great a risk right now. "Why don’t you tell me more about yourself? I mean your family! I know you love to talk about them.“ Even if it was an innocent question, Keith couldn’t help but hide the pink rising in his cheeks.

After he composed himself a little and looked over, he could see Lance giving him a dazed grin. "You want’s to know about little old me?” he slurred out and poked Keith on the shoulder. Keith could tell he was just trying to lighten the mood.

“Of course I do you, idiot.” He found himself saying unable to hide the smile at all of Lance’s antics. Even when the boy was completely mangled, he still managed to lighten the mood around him. It amazed Keith because he knew he could never be as strong as Lance.

Keith was surprised to see Lance looking shocked at the words. “Oh, um, okay. Sure what ya want’s to know, mí amígo?” Lance played with his hands shyly, trying to add some bravery in his words.

“Well, until Shiro and the others get here, we can talk about ourselves. Like what we like, who… Um, who we liked.” he struggled to get the last part out, making himself blush again. ‘Damn, I need to get this under control.’"You know silly things, like favorite color, favorite weapon. things like that.“ When he finished he could hear the distinct sound of laughter. "What?”

“S’just like you say favorite weapon.” Lance smiled brightly at Keith after his fit of giggles was over, words still slurring a bit. Keith could only smile at the wonderfully, dark skinned boy that made his stomachs do flips with the slightest attention.

Moments later Keith heard rustling. His head shot up in time to see a flash of purple and gray, he whispered going into a crouch, “Keep quiet I think the Galra found us..” Sliding over to the opening of the cave he raised his head up only to come face to face with a gray sentry. It raised a blaster and begun to fire barely missing Keith’s arm.

As the bright pink lasers from the blasters started to assault the cave, he leaped back to avoid getting hit. He prepared to dash out of the cave and draw their fire to protect Lance when blue light flashed from the rear of the cave.

Lance, Keith noted, had lost all of his former haziness. His face now morphed into pure focus, hitting every target he laid his eyes on. Even from his immobile status, he was hitting every enemy, even ones Keith couldn’t see. Keith knew the shots were striking true from the sound of bodies crumpling in the darkness.

Keith didn’t want to be one upped by the blue Paladin, so he gave Lance a grin and charged into the darkness. He began chopping down any foe that was in his way or came too close to the cave. He had complete faith that even though he wasn’t close to the cave, the Blue Paladin had his back.

He fought that what felt like hours. His body started to feel heavy. He wasn’t too sure how long they had been fighting, but the wave on sentries never seemed to slow down. He was only able to get a few glances at the cave where Lance’s was, but all he could see were blue flashes of light.

Searing pain shot through his arm as he let out a pained cry, noting his shoulder had started to drip blood. He knew he couldn’t stop now, they had to hold out a little longer.

A flash of yellow, then rapid firing came from all around.

Green came next and bodies started to drop everywhere in the dark.

Lastly, a glowing purple shaped hand came out of the darkness and grabbed the soldier next to him by the face.

Keith could have cried, he was so happy. He was so relieved that they were finally going to get saved. Keith sighed as the fighting ended, falling over now that his body was starting to give out from the strain, but welcomed by strong large arms that pulled him up.

“Hey, are you alright?” he heard Shiro ask while checking him over.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He looked up at Shiro happily. His face dropped when he remembered the Blue Paladin. “Lance!” He screeched pulling away from Shiro and rushing into the cave.

Lance was slumped over fast asleep. ‘Oh no, how long has he been out?’ he rushed over and started to shake him. “Lance, Lance! wake up!” He screamed into the night, barely paying attention to the others as they came behind him and gasped.

Lance looked terrible and was a lot paler now. Keith leaned in to check if he was still breathing. Once he could feel the rise and fall of Lance’s chest, he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and collapsed to the ground from exhaustion.

He felt Shiro move him gently as he said, “Keith, we need to get Lance out of here now. He needs to get into a pod immediately!” Hunk was bawling as he carefully pulled Lance into his arms. Hunk and Pidge then started to make a break for it and run to their lions.

Keith could only stumble down the path, using Shiro to keep himself upright. Keith just let himself be pulled into Shiro’s Lion. By the time they started to leave, the Yellow and Green Lions were already long gone, making their way to the Castle of Lions.

By the time they reached the castle, Hunk was already in medbay halfway done putting the white medical suit on Lance’s pale, weak, body.

“Shiro, come, help me lift Lance into the pod,” Coran yelled. Shiro wasted no time helping lift Lance and gently placing his limp body into the pod.

After everything thing calmed down, everyone looked to Keith for an explanation when Pidge suddenly sucked in a shocked breath.

“Keith! You’re bleeding!” she shrieked as she ran over and tried to drag him along. "You need to get into a pod too!“

Keith just looked at the wound blankly, then frowned, "I don’t need to-” Then stronger arms pulled him over to the med suits, as someone else started to remove his armor. Keith had no energy and his body just felt too numb to put up a fight. He couldn’t believe all this was happening. All he could do was let himself be hauled out of his armor, into the medical suit, then lastly to the pod, where he let the cold and darkness take him. 

Lance felt cold. Then the fuzziness that clogged his brain started to recede and the next thing he knew was he was falling. He sucked in a startled breath, unable to get his body to stop or catch himself. He knew his body wouldn’t be reacting right because of the cryo-sleep, but this felt wrong. Before he landed face first on the ground, something caught him and pulled him up.

“You okay, my boy?”

He forced himself to look up, only to get a face full of a ginger mustache. “Coran?” He croaked, realizing how dry his voice was. He tried to pull himself up, only to find that it seemed to be impossible and frowned at his legs.

“Let’s get you over to the table and take a look at those legs of yours!” Coran chirped, breaking Lance out of his trance, as he hoisted Lance up and bringing him to the stark white medical table.

Coran set him down and helped to get him situated. Lance could only sit there watching as Coran got to work. Pulling out a device and started to scan his body. Once the silence began to get suffocating Lance asked, “So where are the others?”

Coran didn’t even look up as he spoke, a frown growing on his face. “It’s the middle of the night. I finally got them to go to bed. Well most of them,” he pointed over to the pod where Lance’s body had been.

Lance looked over to see a sleeping form curled up into a tight ball. A cover had been placed over his body, black hair messy and untamed. His pale skinned seemed almost sickly and dark circles covered the bottom of his eyes, which were furrowed tight together. 

“What’s he doing here?” Lance hissed out, utterly confused as to why Keith would still be there. It’s not like he cared about Lance anyway.

Coran chuckled. “He wouldn’t leave the room. He seemed to be really worried about you,” he said as he finished the checkup and started looking over the report.

Lance could only feel his brows knit together tighter in confusion. "How long was I out?”

“About three Quintents”

“Three days!?” Lance practically screamed.

“Yes, my boy. Now let’s talk about your…”

“Lance!” The next thing Lance knew, he got a face full of black hair and the wind knocked out of him. “You’re awake! Are you alright?” Keith yelled, his voice rough with disuse. Lance wasn’t able to form words, only able to stare at him and those beautiful grayish purple eyes in shock.

“As I was trying to say,” Coran spoke up breaking Lance out of his daze. “It looks like you still do not have use of your legs. I’m sorry, Lance.” he looked sadly at Lance.

“Why didn’t the pod fix him?” Keith growled from beside him. Lance’s brain couldn’t figure out what was happening.

“Keith, the pods can only do so much. A severed spinal cord is a very hard thing to fix. The pods are not designed to repair nerve damage, that’s much more complicated than repairing the muscles and healing burns.” Coran tried to explain, but Keith only got more irate.

“Why not! You guys have fixed everything before!”

“Keith please calm down. The pods can’t work miracles. It’s more important to let Lance process this.” Coran turned his attention back to a very stunned Lance and placed a hand on top of Lance’s shoulder. “Now Lance, just because the pod couldn’t fix you, there is still a chance that we could. I want to warn you it’s more of a slim chance. And it would require you to heal a little more naturally.”

Lance was only able to give a dazed nod, barely able to comprehend what was being said, as Coran continued to speak. “It might hurt some. Every couple Quintents you will be given an injection that will hopefully, be able to repair the nerves and spinal cord.” Coran only got another nod. He let out a sigh, “I think it’s best to sleep on it and let this settle in. For now, I have a wheelchair you can ride around in!” He said still trying to be bright and happy.

“Okay,” Lance couldn’t get anything else out. He felt numb, dull, and his brain didn’t want to process anything. 'So, I’m completely useless now.’

Coran frowned. He didn’t like the far off look Lance had. He hoped it would get better once Lance got some rest. “Keith since you’re here could you help Lance get to his room? It is rather late.”

“Yeah, fine.” Keith’s brisk tone seemed to pull Lance out of his stupor, as he threw Keith a skeptical look.

“I don’t need any help!” He snapped as Keith pulled the wheelchair over to him.

“Yeah, I would love to see you try,” he piped back, seeming to take the bait and go back to their normal banter. Then Keith gave him a small, sad smile that completely threw Lance off and made him pull back as if he got burned. “But, I don’t want you to get hurt, and you need your rest.” Suddenly his arms were around Lance’s body, lifting him ever so gently and placing him tenderly in the chair.

Lance felt frozen again, but this time it was for a completely different reason. He watched Keith wave goodnight to Coran as they left.

Lance could feel the wheelchair as he stared at his hand. It shook lightly as they walked and he wondered what was going Keith, but was too afraid to look. So he just sat there, hoping and fearful that Keith wasn’t crying like he thought he might have been.

Keith opened the door to Lance’s room when they finally arrive. “Lance I’m going to lift you to the bed okay?” as his voice cracked for a moment, hiding his red rimmed eyes.

“Now you ask?” Lance glared as he eyed the bed. He never thought that something as simple as a bed would be so intimidating, but he wasn’t sure he could pull himself up. With shaky hands, he reached up to touch it, but right before he got too close he pulled away and sighed. “Yeah, you can… help me on the bed.”

Keith nodded, placing his arms around Lance’s lanky frame and ever so gracefully lifted him as if he weighed nothing. Keith then placed him on the bed, adjusting his legs and tucking the covers over them. When he was satisfied that everything was done right he backed away slowly. “Are you good? Do you need anything else?”

Lance just nodded looking away. Lance was acting so… not-Lance like. He seemed so distant and aloof, it worried Keith deeply, especially since Lance hadn’t said more than two words to him. Keith just sighed, “Okay, then um, goodnight then. I’ll see you in the morning.” He let out another long sigh as he headed to the door. He just hoped the morning went better than their encounter tonight.

Red lights.

Streaks of purple.

Screaming.

Pain.

When Lance opened his eyes he came face to face with warm chocolate ones and let out an ungodly shriek, swinging his arms around in his panic.

Large brown hands grabbed his slender wrist holding him down, and for a moment his panic went to overdrive. Until he realized that the body was making soothing sounds, helping him finally calm down. Then he noticed Hunk was staring at him, worry all across his face.

“Sorry.” he choked out, his heart rate falling to a normal speed.

“It’s okay buddy. I kinda was in your face when you woke up. You looked like you were having a bad dream.” Hunk said moving back to give Lance some space.

“I’m fine. It’s nothing to worry about.” Lance pushed his body up, trying to stretch out the stiffness that radiated everywhere. It was strange, he wasn’t usually that stiff. He went to swing his legs over the bed…

Wait…

“What’s wrong?” Hunk moved, ready to catch Lance.”Are you hurt?”

“No. It’s just my legs, Hunk.” he sighed. “I don’t know if the others told you, but I have no feeling in them.” Lance looked up as Hunk let out a long sigh.

“Yeah, we know buddy. When it got closer for the pod to let you out, Coran let us know. It hadn’t seemed to heal the nerves around your spine. We were pretty sure we knew what that meant.” he explained. The weight of what this meant settled over the room, causing a heavy sigh to escape the both of them. 

An awkward silence fell over them as they sat there. Suddenly, the door whooshed open as a frantic Pidge came running in scanning the room. Once she laid eyes on Lance, he was tackled before he knew what was happening.

“You asshole! What were you thinking!?” Pidge sobbed into his shoulder, her small pale hands squeezing his waist tightly.

“Nice to see you too Pidgey. What is my favorite night owl doing up this early?” Lance chuckled. He tried to wiggle his arms out of her death grip so he could start to pat her head.

“I was worried about you, ass,” she lifted her head glaring at him. She then gave his shoulder a rather solid punch, causing him to yelp in surprise and rub the abused shoulder.

“I’m sorry! It’s not my fault.! I didn’t know we were going to get attacked!“ He tried to pull away but was struggling with the lack of mobility he had. “You gotta believe me. I didn’t want to get hurt! It hurt a lot,” he did his best huge pout, trying to be dramatic as possible.

“Fine! Just don’t do it again! “ She scowled jabbing her finger at him.

Lance rolled his eyes, “Fiiinnnee.” It got a short laugh out of Pidge and the tension was broken a little. Hunk helped keep the conversation lighter and things became comfortable again. Almost. Lance couldn’t help but feel a little bad, the other two were stuck here because he wasn’t able to move. He was useless. He just had to get hurt, which only made them worry, and now they were stuck with him.

Before Lance’s brain could spiral any further his door slid open again. A panicked, but slightly less tired Keith entered. Keith looked frantic, however as soon as his eyes landed on Lance, that morphed into a relaxed sigh.

"Ah! Looks like I have the whole team here to visit little old me.” Lance gave his best smile, placing his hand over his chest and leaning forward.

He saw Keith shake his head and give a low chuckle, “Shiro was wondering where everyone was. it’s way past breakfast time. I came to get Lance,” He placed an awkward hand behind his neck, “ But, I see I’m not needed. So I, um, guess I’ll just go.” he started to back away.

Lance felt warmth blossom inside when he realized Keith seemed to care enough to come to get him. Lance decided he didn’t like the expression Keith had gotten when he couldn’t help.

He stole a look at his best friends. Then he started making shooing motions as he looked at Keith. “Well get to it! I’m got going to be able to get there myself!” he ignored the pang of hurt the reminder that he was useless Instead, he focused on glaring at a certain gremlin, who chuckled off to the side.

It was worth it when he saw Keith’s face light up ever so slightly, “But what about Pidge and Hunk? Lance. They were here first and would be able to help you better.” Keith didn’t want to interfere.

Hunk elbowed Pidge, realizing what was going on. He grabbed her arm when she shot him a blank look and pulled her out the door. “I just remembered! We never made breakfast! Pidge, come to help me. We will see you two in the dining room.” 

Before either of them could get a word in the two were gone.

“Well, I guess that solves that.” Lance huffed out a breathy laugh. “Come on Keithy boy, let’s get going! To the food!” Lance pumped his fist in the air. He had to keep the dramatics to hide how hurt he was.

When he looked over he was starstruck, Keith looked so sweet. He was giving Lance a dopey smile, and shaking his head. “Okay, fine,” he said as he helped Lance get ready to leave the room. He was able to get dressed by himself, after a bit of awkward help from Keith.

Once Keith helped him to the dining room, Coran explained what was happening to Lance, over an otherwise enjoyable breakfast. The whole thing only made him feel so much worse the longer Coran talked. He felt so useless. What were they going to do now? Was he going to get kicked off the team? If he couldn’t walk, would they let him stay on the ship? Would they drop him off on a random planet? He couldn’t go home! The Galra still didn’t know where…

He looked up, only to realize the whole team staring at him. “Um, I think I’m done eating breakfast. Thanks, Hunk, it was great.” Lance awkwardly pulled himself away from the others and left the room.

He didn’t want to be around them. They would only pity him. He just wanted to be alone. He would figure it out himself. He would make sure he wasn’t in the others way. He didn’t want to take them away from their work. They had so many more important things to deal with. All he was good for was talking their ears off. Well, not anymore! He would figure this out. Or at least stay out of their way, the best he could.

After Lance’s speedy exit, the team saw far less of him. Keith was worried. He knew Hunk was seeing Lance when he could find him. Lance was surprisingly good at hiding. Keith was there to try to help him into the chair most mornings, but Lance as soon as figured out how to do it himself. Soon, the only time they saw him was every couple of days, when he got the shot. It was suppose to help heal his spine.

They had been lucky, there hadn’t been any attacks since the accident. Keith wasn’t sure how they would handle it. The team was slipping. It was amazing to realize how Lance had always been able to hold them together. Keith once thought them nothing but childish antics. Now he could see how it kept the stress levels down for the others. It kept them from pushing themselves to the point they collapsed from exhaustion. ‘It’s not like they tended to overwork themselves,’ Keith thought with a roll of his eyes.

Pidge had locked herself inside her workshop. She was working on something, that was obviously very important. He was pretty sure it was for Lance

Hunk had gone into a baking frenzy. Most only taste half as good as they normally did. When he wasn’t baking he was working with Pidge, who would get instantly irritated at any disruption.

Shiro was working out too much. If Keith was being honest, he would probably be working out just as often, if it had been of any use. He couldn’t motivate himself to do it. For once, he wanted to fix the problem, not work it off. Keith found Shiro lost in his thoughts several times as well, hand resting on the shoulder of his Galra arm. If Keith couldn’t find him in the training room, he could be found on the bridge. Running constant simulations and going over plans for all the new missions that have been arriving. Everyone knew they couldn’t sit around forever.

Coran seemed to be taking it the hardest. He would lose himself in Altean medical books. Everyone knew, besides the person in question, that Lance was his favorite. Keith was pretty sure Lance reminded Coran of his son.

Allura, from the outside, appeared to be the least concerned about the whole thing. A closer look proved how much it was wearing on her. Hair was a little more unkempt. Her face didn’t have her normal, ethereal glow. She stayed on the bridge longer than Shiro did. She began to talk less than she had before.

Seeing all of this, Keith knew he had to do something. He was determined to find Lance.

Stupid

That’s all Lance felt. Two weeks in this stupid char. Where his stupid legs didn’t work. Where he stupidly struggled to get dressed in the morning. He couldn’t even take a STUPID shower.

It was all stupid. What made it worse was, that as much as he tried to stay out of the others way, they were always looking for him. For some stupid reason. Didn’t they see he was useless in this state? Well, he felt useless in most states, but even more so now.

Lance had found an old training deck. It looked like it hadn’t been used in at least ten thousand years. Lance had used it to try to work his legs. Coran had shown him some exercises to keep the blood flow going. Anything to try to keep them from going weak and shriveling up on him. This whole thing was taking to long for him. He had felt a tingling in his legs one day after the shot. After an hour or so it went away.

He rolled into the room frustrated. Locking the chair’s wheels, he slid his body down to the floor and started to stretch. He pulled himself down to grab his stretched out leg. Then pulled himself all the way down, until he was flat with his leg. He did several rounds of this. The only good thing about this situation was he was getting far more flexible than he had been. His lower body didn’t hold him back as much anymore so it was easier to get it weird, and somewhat unnatural, positions.

He fell into a comfortable rhythm. Back stretches, then arms, then legs. He would manually move each joint and muscle on each leg, several times. He was able to do this by lifting his thigh up and down while rotating it where he could. He repeated the process with his knee, calf, ankle and finally, each to He just had to fix this somehow, and he couldn’t rely on the others. It wasn’t fair to them. They were all such important people that they didn’t have time to spend time with his useless ass.

He never pictured himself as someone who would be stretching all the time. In the past, he thought other people were crazy for stretching. He was always so relaxed, and his body was naturally flexible, so he never really saw the need for it. Look at him now.

After he finished stretching his whole body, he grabbed his Bayard and slid into the corner. He had set up a training program to help sharpen his sniping skills. He wouldn’t be useful for anything else.

He shook the thought out of his head and started the training sequence. Two gladiators dropped down. Before they knew where he was, they were crumbling to the floor and down the disposal shoot. More replaced them.

Lance wasn’t really sure how long the program ran. His arms started to become heavy and he struggled to stay sitting up. Everything blended together as the gladiators multiplied. He didn’t notice the bot that came at him from the side. The next thing he saw were flashes of red and white as the bot was down.

Keith was pretty sure he hadn’t been this pissed in quite a while. What the hell was Lance thinking! Keith searched high and low, then found Pidge to track his ass down. Only to discover he was in an abandoned training deck! ALONE! Why did he think this was a smart thing? He couldn’t walk! Keith knew Lance’s body had to be weaker. He was putting it through a lot of strain, because of his lack of mobility he was having work twice as hard. Keith was lucky he got there in time. A second later, Lance would have been impaled by the Altean gladiator. Fortunately, Keith had just enough time to use his dagger, in its sword form, to take it out. He quickly ended the training sequence.

“What the actual hell were you thinking!” Keith screeched at Lance as he grabbed his shoulders shook him.

He could tell Lance felt bad about it. The way he averted his eyes made that completely obvious. Lance’s lip quivered slightly as a very sad “Sorry” slipped out. Keith didn’t like the sound of that.

He let out a long sigh as he pinched the bridge of r his nose. He understood why Shiro did it sometimes when he was frustrated. “Don’t be sorry. I just want to know why. You shouldn’t be doing this alone! Do you not know how…” Keith clamped his mouth shut realizing what he was about to say.

“Weak? Useless? Stupid? I get it, Keith! I can’t do anything!” Keith was not expecting that, or the level of pain that was in the outburst. The sound tore his heart in half.

“Hey, I was not going to say that. You are not useless. It’s not your fault this has happened…” Guilt overwhelmed him as he remembered how Lance got into this state in the first place. “It’s my fault. I should have been able to take them down and protect you. You shouldn’t have had to place your body over me.” He knew he was breaking down in front of Lance, but he couldn’t hold it in anymore. “I’m sorry you feel like you’re weak and useless. You are one of the greatest, smartest people, I know. And I care about you, so fucking much, I just want to be here to help you! Not because, I think you can’t do it on your own, but because I care.” He found himself shaking and heaving ugly sobs, as he fell bawling into Lance’s arms.

Eventually, Keith calmed down, the realization of everything he said slamming into him. He turned a deep shade of red that almost matched his cropped jacket. “Oh god, I am so sorry you heard all that! I… I should go.” Before Lance could say anything Keith was getting up to dash out of the room, but the feeling of his arm being grabbed stopped him. He looked back to see Lance, who was also the same shade of red, kneeling.

Wait.

Kneeling.

Lance seemed to realize what had happened at the same time and his eyes lit up. A second later he was falling forward and crashed on top of Keith. This caused him to lose balance and sent both of them down in a heap, Keith getting crushed by Lance’s body. A laugh tore through his throat, sparking a chuckle from Lance and soon they were both laughing with such joy.

“You moved your legs!” Keith shouted with delight.

“I moved my legs!” Lance parroted back, still in shock.

The two laid like that for a long time just laughing and repeating the amazing breakthrough. Lance wasn’t able to move them anymore, but he appeared to be getting feeling back. He noticed that they felt numb and tingly, and that was better than the nothing he had been dealing with. 

Their joy was cut short as the door opened. “Lance, did Keith find you? I have something for… Oh my god! My virgin eyes!” Pidge shrieked covering her face. “Do this in private you nasties!”

“Pidge! It’s not what it looks like! Something amazing happened! Lance moved his legs!” Keith was unable to stop the words from flowing. He wondered what happened to his filter.

“What! That’s great” She was being a bit over dramatic, especially since she couldn’t see anything that had happened. “That makes my invention so much easier! Come to my lab, I have something to show you.” She threw over her shoulder as she left.

She stuck her head back in. “And no more Nasties you two!”

Keith and Lance laid there stunned for a moment. Once the shock wore off Keith helped Lance back into his chair. They headed toward Pidge’s lab to see if she had managed to make something that would hopefully, help Lance walk again. Keith was just glad there was ait was a distraction from his near confession.

Once the two finally made it to Pidge’s lab. There were wires and metal pieces strung all over the place. Lance was worried Keith wasn’t going to be able to get them through the mess.

Pidge seemed to have realized this and had made a small path, barely the size of the wheelchair.

They eventually made it to the table she had set up. “What took you two losers so long?” She yelled popping up from seemingly nowhere.

Lance screamed at the shock, throwing her a glare. “That’s not very funny! You scared me half to death. Now, why do you want me here?”

In return, Pidge gave him a Cheshire grin It was obvious she was plotting something. Lance looked over, gulping, as she pulled out a small hammer and what looked like, some kind of needle. “Just making sure everything is working properly.” She pulled him away from Keith and moved him next to her table. “Okay. So, I need to see how much feeling you really have, in those legs of yours. “I’m going to hit you with this mallet. If everything works, I’ll poke around with this needle.“ She smiled as she lifted mallet high in the air. "Ready?” was the only warning he got to prepare himself, as she swung down. He closed his eyes, expecting his knee to be bashed in. To his surprise, he only felt a light tap.

He felt that.

His smile grew as he opened his eyes.“Please tell me you barely touched my leg.” He got a nod in return and he let out a cry of joy. “Pidge! I felt that!” He reached over and grabbed her, unable to stop himself from laughing at the feeling in his legs.

When Lance finally calmed down, they went back to work. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. He had feeling all the way down his legs until they reached his feet. Then everything seemed to stop. He was left with no more than a light tingling. He tried to tell himself it was better than nothing, but he was worried it would just stop there. That’s where his healing would end and there wouldn’t be anything they could do about it.

“This is great!” Pidge’s shrill voice cut through his thoughts.“ You got this well, this fast! You’ll be able to walk in no time! You can start on these now!” She leaned over her work table as she pulled out two metal and fabric shaped legs.

“These are going to be your braces.” Lance gave her a questioning look. “Now, now. You should know better. They aren’t normal braces. These bad boys will track your thoughts on moving them and they will help walk for you. You will need to use your own strength to keep them going and if you fall they won’t really catch you. But they are meant to help you keep moving!” She exclaimed, excitement pouring out of her..“ Hunk helped me make them! He wanted to be here to see you put them on… but I couldn’t wait! And he’s is cooking dinner. So, he’s just going to have to miss out.”

Before he realized what was happening, the braces were fitted around his legs and a wire pad attached to his low spine. He felt a small sensation on his spine as it was connected to the wires of the electronic braces. He looked down at them half expecting them to move on their own.

“Alright, can you move your legs?” Pidge asked, excitement lacing her voice, as she practically vibrated on the spot.

Lance took a deep breath. He could do this.

No, he had to do this. He couldn’t fail again. With deep concentration he focused on his legs, and ever so slowly, they shakily lifted.

His face brightened at the sight. It wasn’t much, and he couldn’t hold them up for long, but it was a start. It was something. He moved them. After a little over two weeks of not having any feeling in his legs, he was finally able to move them.

“That’s great!” Keith said from behind him, causing Lance to jump. He had forgotten Keith was still there.

Lance was so thrilled about the whole thing, he couldn’t help but smile at Keith. “Yeah, it is!” 

After going over a few more details of the braces, they decided it would be best to go have dinner before Hunk had their heads. Lance was also excited about showing Hunk what he could do now.

To say Hunk was displeased was an understatement. He was furious. The look he sent Pidge at the moment they came in and he saw Lance happily moving his legs around, while still sitting in his wheelchair, made that obvious. Lance looked between the two and saw how she was giving Hunk an obviously insincere, apologetic look.

Hunk took a deep breath seeing her 'I’m not sorry but trying to look sorry’ look and schooled his features to look calm. “I’m not angry.” He started waving his hand in front of her, “but, I am extremely disappointed in you.”

Lance put his hands over his mouth to suppress the laughter that was trying to bubble out as he stole glances at Shiro. The man in question looked very perplexed as to whether to get between them or reprimand Pidge. Lance hated their fighting as much as anyone else and feeling the tension rise, he flashed a mischievous grin at Shiro who looked taken back and shouted. “Hey, Hunk! Quit stealing Shiro’s lines!”

That stopped them, as Shiro’s face became very red, causing everyone to burst into laughter. After everyone calmed down, hugs and congratulations were showered on Lance for his progress, and a new set of “legs”. Coran told him that whether he wanted to or not, they were going to be starting therapy, and he should be prepared. The group seems to forget that dinner was still cooking until the bell for the oven went off. They all scattered to their respective seats and started to eat. Lance saw Pidge lean over and whisper something to Hunk. His smile brightened, as he briefly gave her one of his famous hugs.

Once everyone was done eating, Lance looked could feel Keith looking over at him. When Lance looked, he could see the sad smile. Lance knew what it was about. A look of guilt. He hated them. This would be his fifth shot. He got them every couple of days and Keith had become his nurse through the whole thing. At first, he couldn’t understand why now he had a pretty good idea. So, with the most dramatic sigh he could muster and a low whine, he looked over and said,“ Is it that time already!” He flung his body on Keith’s lap the best he could in the wheelchair.“ Guess we should get going then,” as he felt Keith trying to stifle a laugh.

The two got ready and said their goodnights. Shiro smiled and gave them a thumbs up. Keith in return flipped him off, then began pushing Lance’s wheelchair. Lance concentrated on trying to move his legs around as they exited the room. Once they were alone in the empty hall, Lance glanced over smirking, “So…” He sing songed, “ You think I’m 'One of the greatest, smartest’ people you ever known, huh?”

Lance was glad he turned around to see Keith’s face flush a bright red. Keith turned away staring at the wall and cleared his throat. “You… uh. remembered that? I was hoping that everything with Pidge and the braces, you would have been too distracted and forget.”

Lance’s smirk grew wider, “Oh Keithy! how could I forget? We bonded!” he mocked. Then his face grew serious, as a frown appeared on his face. “Did you really mean it? About how much you care and all that?”

Keith stopped pushing and snapped his face back to him. He heard the heartbroken tone, so he swallowed the nerves that were threatening to choke him. His heart pounding, but it was too late. He had to find out. "Yeah, I did.“ He swallowed again, because how could Lance really feel the same? "But I completely… understand if you don’t feel the same. I didn’t even mean for that to all come out. How could you even like -”

Lance stopped him right there by using his legs to pull his body as he reached out and pulled at Keith’s shirt to pull his body down, giving the shocked boy the softest kiss on the cheek. When he was done, he sat back down to see a very wide eyed Keith. He couldn’t help but smile, “I feel the same way.” Then his smile fell and his tone went bitter, “Although I don’t know why you would like someone as useless as me. I mean I can barely stand-”

Lance was cut off but his wheelchair receiving a sharp jolt and he looked over to see Keith glaring. “Someone like you? Useless? Lance, you risked your life to protect me! Not being able to walk has nothing to do with this! You got severely injured AFTER PROTECTING ME! Now, look at you! You are now suddenly able to lift yourself up, after less than two weeks of this! That’s not weak to me. I know I said it before, but you saved my life. If anyone doesn’t deserve someone, it’s me. I don’t deserve you”

When Keith was done Lance felt like he just been slapped. “I didn’t… I, uh… wait you knew I saved your life?”

“Yeah, it was kind of hard to miss with you sprawled on top of me, you Idiot.”

“So, I guess Pidge and Hunk are back to being the Smartest again?”

Lance felt Keith laugh at that, and he was unable to hold in his own laughter. The two made it down the hall without incident and a little bit happy.

In a few weeks time, Lance had made progress. He was able to walk now, even if it was only a short distance, at a very slow pace. His new relationship with Keith had done wonders. It gave him extra support, on top of what the team was giving him. He finally felt the motivation he needed to progress. After a long talk with the team, he realized he shouldn’t be doing this alone and should have been asking them for help, instead of hiding from them. It showed him exactly how much they were there for him and wanted him.

Now he was stuck. It was like there was this plateau he couldn’t seem to get over. All he seemed to manage was to walk at a snail’s pace. Trying to make a joke out of it, he often complained that he was an old man and needed the “young ones” to help him around.

That was until he was back in his room, that he started sharing with Keith, crying his eyes out. He was starting to feel that he wasn’t going to get any better. He just let Keith hold him close to calm him down. Soon after that, his jokes started to fade. He started to get snappy and frustrated at every little thing. When the day was over and he realized how horrible he had been, he would cry until he was too worn out for tears. Luckily having Keith still with him, even if he did say horrible things, helped.

After the team had been traveling for a long while. They finally felt it safe enough to stop for repairs and to restock the castle. They had found an almost deserted planet. The scans had shown a few small cities with limited technology, but nothing that screamed danger. Instead, they had apparently landed almost on top of some kind of space Pirate Lair. Within a few Varga the Castle was taken over. The pirates had rounded up all the occupants living there, or at least that’s what they thought.

Lance had been resting in his room alone that day, after a particularly draining therapy session. Coran pushed him harder these days, in hopes, it would push him to the next stage or wear him out enough so he wasn’t so snappy at everyone. After the nap he didn’t really need, he woke up hungry. Lance decided it would be easiest to just get a snack by himself, instead of waiting to the others got back from the supply and repair run. He knew the other reason he wanted to go alone, was because he had been getting increasingly grumpier, as the days went on. It was getting to the point where he couldn’t be around the team for long periods of time. He wasn’t going to let that bother him, in hopes it would get better soon. He would see them at dinner and apologize. Besides, he could always use more practice with his braces own his own. He hated to always have to use their help.

He made his way slowly down the hall. He was partially frustrated at how long it was taking but partly thrilled at how it was getting easier to walk on how own, without fear of falling. Suddenly he froze, unfamiliar voices were yelling in the landing bay he was passing. He was pretty sure he remembered Keith saying they landed far away from any intelligent life. Then he heard a familiar grunt of pain, from Shiro, who seemed to be trying to calm someone down.

“We don’t want any trouble. We are just repairing out ship-” Lance could hear the strain in Shiro’s voice before he was cut off with another pained grunt.

“Sure you were. We know there is no way you just landed here. You were after out stuff! Who sent you? You better start giving us some answers… or else.” A gruffled voice said. The whole thing didn’t sit well with Lance.

His blood ran icy cold when the next voice, with a strange lisp, spoke up. “Now, now Audin. These look like fairly reasonable people. No seen for harsh words. I’m sure they will tell us exactly what we want to know. Accidents are so easily to happen. It be a shame… if someone was to get hurt though.”

More shuffling and a few other grunts made Lance realize he needed to MOVE. The team needed him. He walked over at an access panel that wasn’t far away. He and Pidge had mapped most of the hidden pathways that the vents had connected to. The mapping had originally been for whenever they wanted to prank the others. Lance now realized how very useful it was, for when something like this happened. He was just happy he had memorized the whole map. Pidge had the only copy so the others wouldn’t know about it.

He was able to slide the panel off with ease and shimmy into the passageway. After making sure the panel was reattached, He moved his way through the vents. He was glad, in a very cynical way, that his upper body strength had gotten so much stronger. He was now military style crawling along the vent.

Peeking out he saw several aliens all who were holding weapons in the cargo bay. Shiro and the others were in a tight ring against the far wall. Lance looked over and found the best dressed out of the group. He was sure was that it was the so call leader of this pirate group. The weird humanoid rabbit like alien, seemed to be eyeing Allura in a predatorily way and said, “Now, tell us. who. sent. you?” He was strolling towards her twirling a dagger in his hands.

Allura glared at him, cutting Shiro off. “ He already told you. No one sent us. We only wanted to make some repairs on our ship. This planet seemed to have low tech. That’s why we landed so far away.” Lance could see from where he was that her teeth were gritted together.

The Rabbit man that Lance remembered was named Audin let out a huff. “I find that very hard to believe. All of you seem to move as if you had fighting experience. No simple voyagers would have that ability. You are either with another faction or with Zarkon. And sorry, but you are not the right breed to be with that man. So there is no other reason for you to be down here, of all places. I don’t believe in coincidence, so tell me.” His furred hand shot out and grabbed Allura by the collar. “The reason…” He spun her quickly, her back to his chest, holding tight with an iron grip with one hand, the other pressing the dagger against her throat, “You are here?”

Lance knew he had to do something now! He tore his gaze away to scan the room, to see what he was up against. For a pirate gang, there were only six around. He materialized his Bayard. He had started carrying it with him so he could sneak in some of the shooting drills he created, as often as possible. If he could do this fast, he could take at least incapacitate four of them almost at once. The real question was would it be fast enough to spare Allura? He took a chance to check over to his friends. Everyone had some cuts and bruises on them. Some more than others…. Keith, he loved him, but man he felt like he needed to babysit him to keep him safe. They all seemed to be poised to strike, Allura’s safety holding them back. If only he could get a signal to Pidge, they could move simultaneously and-

Suddenly there was movement. A flash of red and an enraged roar as Keith lunged forward. Shiro was yelling for him to stop but the impulsive idiot kept going. Because Keith already had been injured, he didn’t see the enemy with the snake tail. It slithered behind him faster than lightning, slamming his blaster into the back of Keith’s head. Keith staggered but managed to swing around and kick the enemy in the head. Both with down with a solid thud. Red seemed to be lightly seeping from the back of Keith’s head.

The leader’s face took on a deadly expression, floppy ears going rigid. His grip tightening, as his dagger dug more into Allura’s throat. “Do you think this is some kind of joke?” He bellowed. “ Since you think it is appropriate to mock me, by attacking my men, I will no longer extend any good grace I had to you. Bring him to me.”

Keith was hauled up by two of the aliens. The one of his right sides was shaped more like a green blob with thin white arms, and the other that was on the left, was some kind of tall gray stick like limbed thing. He wasn’t sure it even had a face. Lance could see blood dripping down Keith’s face. His dazed expression and glassy eyes told Lance that he had lost the battle with consciousness. Shiro was trying to fight back but was only kicked into Pidge and Hunks arms. The rabbit’s right hand man pulled out a gun and pointed it to Keith’s head, “Say goodbye.”

Lance saw red.

Without thinking, he shot the man holding the gun to Keith’s head in the thigh and hand. Followed almost instantly by the two furthest away holding the team back. Throwing open the grate the rest of the way, he dropped down and ran forward with such rage that the two holding Keith pulled back. They weren’t fast enough. Two more blasts hit them and they dropped to the ground, pulling Keith down with them.

The leader had loosened his grip on Allura in his surprise. She headbutted him in his pink nose, as she then twisted sideways out of his grasp. He yelled in fury and hefted his blaster in her face. Then the pirate leader felt the cold point of another blaster resting at the back of his neck. “I wouldn’t do that if I was you. I didn’t kill them. But it wasn’t because I couldn’t,” a cold voice came from behind.

The leader glanced around to see the rest of his crew incapacitated. His blaster went loose, soon slipping out of his hands, with the added pressure to his head. The moment it clattered to the floor, it was kicked away and darkness welcomed him, with a swift hit across the back of his head.

“Lance!”

Voices came in and Lance looked up from the crumpled figure in front of him. He was blinking back the daze that clouded his eyes in his rage. He realized the others were looking at him in awe. He ducked his head, and smiled nervously, “Hey guys… what’s cooking?”

Keith was starting to come back to the world of the living as Hunk and Shiro lifted him up. He mumbled out. “How many… times are you going to save me… before I save you?”

Lance laughed to himself as he took a step forward -

Wait.

He took a step forward. A normal step.

He quickly looked down. He was standing. No shakes. He had done all of that…. while standing. He kicked the baster away. He RAN!

He was so dumbstruck he didn’t realize his body starts to give out and his knees wobbled. He was too lost in his own thoughts to notice Pidge and Allura standing close by, ready to catch him if he fell down.

“Lance that was amazing!” Pidge bounce around excitedly, still keeping a watchful eye on him. “The way you shot those guys down! You got that jerk to drop his blaster! it was like you were a hero from some action movie!”

Allura surprised him with a hug, “Thank you, Lance. I’m not sure what we would have done without you.”

“But-

"No buts! That was totally badass! I didn’t think you had it in you.” Pidge joked giving him a light punch to the shoulder. She looked over to see Hunk and Shiro making their way back over with Keith and Coran tieing all the intruders up. “C'mon, we need to get Keith in a pod and figure out what to do with these guys.”

Lance’s brows furrowed as he glared at the man lying below him, thinking about what happened to Keith. “I know what we can do with them, jettison them. See how far they go.” half joking half not he took a step forward, but his knees gave out and he felt himself falling. Luckily Allura was there to support him. He stared down at his legs as sadness washed over him. So much for progress…

Before his thoughts went deeper he felt a small finger jab into his side. “Stop that! The adrenaline is just wearing off. We now know how much you can do. We’ll just have to adjust your exercises.” He looked at Pidge to see her grinning and he couldn’t suppress a gulp.

“You made astounding progress, don’t see this as a setback,” Allura added missing Pidge’s mischievous grin.

“We also need to adjust the tension on his braces, Pidge.” Hunk said as he held Keith with ease. “And -”

“Let’s get Keith in a pod. We can talk about Lance’s legs later.” Shiro cut in.

Pidge sighed as she walked to the door. Lance went pale. He had almost completely forgotten about Keith’s condition after realizing he had run. He tried to pull out of Allura’s grip but was no longer able to hold his own weight. Allura basically carried him next to Keith as they ran to the medbay. Hunk and Shiro were practically shoving the black haired boy into a pod.

They tried to get Lance to go in to make sure he was alight. But he rejected that idea by saying he was fine, just weak from overexertion. Then the team tried to move him and he refused, saying he was going to stay right there until Keith got out. No one wanted to fight with him anymore, so they let him be. Coran gave him a cover and he was soon fast asleep, next to the pod.

Keith woke up feeling cold and like he was going to fall. It was only after hands gently held his shoulders up, did he remembered what happened. “Lance?” He rasped out.

He was sat down and handed a water pouch. Shiro let out a chuckle as Keith greedily drank it. “He’s fine.” His smile widened. “In fact, it’s amazing he is still asleep.” He pointed to the pod.

Keith was immediately hit with a sense of deja vu, and couldn’t hide the warm smile that crossed his face. Then his eyes grew wide with shock. “What happened to those guys? Did Lance really run and take them out? Is he still okay? Can he still walk?” Keith’s voice rose in volume as panic seemed to set in.

Before Shiro could answer any of his questions, a sleepy “Keith” came out of the mocha boys lips. He struggled to get up and using a steady pace, hobbled over to the two. Keith, without even a second thought, rushed to him. Meeting Lance halfway, Keith pulled his savior into his arms with a loving hug.

Yes, Lance was okay.

Yes, Lance could still walk.

It just might take him a little more time to get him to a hundred percent, and that was okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope You enjoyed!


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